Dec. 28 (Bloomberg) -- Ghana’s opposition New Patriotic
Party started its legal challenge of this month’s presidential
election in the country’s highest court, contesting results of
the vote that was lost by its leader, Nana Akufo-Addo.

The party, which governed in West Africa’s second-biggest
economy from 2001 to 2009, issued its petition at the Supreme
Court in Accra, seeking a nullification of the vote outcome.

“We are taking the Electoral Commission to court to say
that the results that they brought should be annulled because it
was fraught with irregularities,” Mike Ocquaye, deputy Greater
Accra region secretary with the NPP, told reporters in the
capital, Accra, today. If they win and a vote has to be
reorganized, the NPP want the United Nations, the European Union
and other international groups to “come and not only monitor
but conduct the elections,” he said.

Akufo-Addo, a 68-year-old former foreign minister, got 47.7
percent of the votes cast in the Dec. 7-8 election, according to
the Electoral Commission. John Dramani Mahama, 54, of the ruling
National Democratic Congress, who is named in the NPP’s court
petition along with the commission, won with 50.7 percent.
Foreign and domestic observer groups said the election was
credible.

A total of 1.3 million votes are in question, said Mahamadu
Bawumia, a former deputy central bank governor and the NPP’s
vice-presidential candidate. Mahama defeated Akufo-Addo by
326,000 ballots, according to the commission.

Contesting Parliament

More people registered for the presidential vote than the
simultaneous parliamentary polls and almost half a million
Ghanaians were allowed to vote without using a biometric
identity-verification system, Bawumia said, citing the party’s
examination of polling data. Some voting documents weren’t
signed by electoral commission officials at polling stations and
serial numbers on some ballots didn’t match their vote centers,
he said.

“Elections are about those who cast votes, not those who
count, collate, supervise or declare results,” Akufo-Addo told
reporters today.

The party is gathering evidence and will later file
petitions to contest some of the parliamentary results, said NPP
Chairman Jake Obetsebi-Lamptey.

Cedi Declines

Ghana’s currency weakened for a second day, declining 0.3
percent to 1.9065 a dollar, the lowest since Nov. 29, by 3:45
p.m. in Accra, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The
yield on the country’s $750 million of Eurobonds eased for a
third day, retreating 5.6 basis points to 4.89 percent. A basis
point is equal to 0.01 percentage point.

Sylvia Annor, a spokeswoman for the Accra-based electoral
commission, didn’t answer two calls made to her mobile phone
today. Deputy Information Ministers and NDC members Samuel
Okudzeto Ablakwa and James Agyenim Boateng didn’t answer two
calls made to each of their mobile phones.

As a defendant, the Electoral Commission has the right to
reply after 10 days, Accra region NPP official Ocquaye said. The
court will then give hearing notice within five days and then
will have as many as 60 days, including weekends and holidays,
to judge the case, he said. A decision can’t be reviewed or
appealed, Ocquaye said.